Love Fingers – Interview

Stuart Huggett recently had the chance to interview those quirky ladies from St Leonards, ‘Love Fingers’.
It certainly makes for entertaining reading. We’ve embedded their videos as well, so that you can see what all the fuss is about.

Love Fingers Interview:

Love Fingers are probably the oddest group to come out of St Leonards this year. Formed by four young local artists, going by the names of Vixon, Rogue, Bad M and Phat Al, Love Fingers combine loosely recorded songs with simply shot, imaginative videos, sharing them on YouTube. They’ve yet to play live, but have amassed a passionate online following.

The group’s debut single ‘Independent Woman, Down by the Sea’ appeared online in the spring, a lo-fi clatter of keyboard presets and post-punk bass and drum fumbling, with a video poking affectionate fun at the town’s idle middle classes.

The zombie disco-funk of ‘Stay All Night’ and lullaby-like ‘Siesta de la Resistance’ followed, each accompanied by further ambitious, strange and playful videos.

For the past few years, Love Fingers have also entered short features in the annual Hastings Film Challenge competition. This year’s effort, horror parody ‘The Demon Tree’, won them a hat-trick of prizes, including the Best Film award.

SH: What came first, the film projects or the music?LF: Well Stu, that’s like saying the chicken or the egg. I suppose it was the films. Our first feature movie (‘Pot Luck’) was set in 1940s kitchen sink Yorkshire. It was a very difficult time – we all realised we were suffering from emotional problems – and you can see this reflected in the film. Vixon was in rehab for her cherryade habit and her addiction was moving fast towards hard biscuits. Rogue tripped in the street, Bad M was just outta the slammer and Phat Al had just had her fifth set of triplets. By the second film the band had split due to musical differences, however we pulled it together to make the award winning ‘Fek Johnson’ – after that we were unstoppable. A string of hits including (da, da, da, da, da, da, whatever our films are called, can’t remember) followed.

SH: Who plays what instrument?LF: We prefer to call our instruments “vehicles of fluid expression”. Nothing’s set, we just “jam”. It’s all spontaneous and free like a plastic bag blowing in a tree. Bad M is a virtuoso on the recorder, she was a child musical protégé who was soloing on her vehicle of fluid expression from a really young age. Rogue plays the keyboard which has some interesting effects from the 90s – it’s a Yamaha, it never lets you down. Vixon says there’s nothing to say about her instrument, it’s just there, she was born with the voice of an angel. Phat Al was forced to go on drums coz no one else wanted to go on them.

SH: When will you play live?LF: How long’s a piece of string? We’re a bit stuck as we only do arenas and there aren’t any in Hastings – it’s either Alexandra Park or nothing, however we’re a bit quiet so it might not work. So it’ll probably be in February in a small room with just ourselves.

SH: Are you planning to make any recordings available?LF: Well we’re waiting to sell out to EMI for millions of dollars so we can buy a mansion in Upper Maze Hill and live like pimps. Until then were keeping tight control over our creative efforts: you can buy a Love Fingers CD by ordering from the website, www facebookdotsomething, or lots of our films and songs are on YouTube.

SH: What other film projects are you planning?LF: We have a detective series in the pipeline, but that’s coming after the trilogy of thrillers. Vixon is also writing a novel about the Love Fingers. Rogue is penning a musical opera for Glyndebourne.

SH: Which other local musicians do you rate?LF: James Page is a kicking muso, second only to the legendary Bill who hangs mostly at the Roomz or the Old England Pub on London Road. Obviously Maid Of Ace is the best band on the planet (apart from us) and if ELO lived in Hastings and it was the 70s they would definitely be in our top 10. We also love a bit of Franco under the boardwalk: he’s like Dylan, but better.

SH: What do you think of the town’s arts scene generally?LF: Phat Al is the arts scene.

SH: How important are politics to the band?LF: We don’t know much about politics and things like that but we do know that SOME people are idiots. It’s good to be aware of what’s going on around you, being “apolitical” is like watching someone being beaten up and not doing anything to stop it. Politics is to care about something and act on it. We’ve all had our political fight sucked outta us by Margaret Thatcher. We’re a nation of mildly depressed apathetic individuals.

SH: Why do you think so few musicians are politically engaged?LF: Because they’re boring.

SH: Do you consider other areas of the arts to be more politically active?LF: The Activettes are a good example of art meeting politics, check them out at activettes.blogspot.co.uk

Cheer up love! thanks for posting this interview, really down with the love fingers sound. I saw some of their video installations a while back and knew they would blow up, is there any official LF merch out there or in the pipeline ??? – would love a LF logo hoody or Siesta de la Resistance Tee, please
quick plug our band gunge new single coming soon “dotcac” with a Capital Sh*tty remix
peas